1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shielded connector including an inner housing and an outer housing which are integrally connected with each other into a united body by means of connecting parts.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, there is known a shielded connector of such a type that an inner housing for storing a terminal therein and an outer housing for covering the inner housing are connected together into a united body by means of connecting parts.
Now, a description will be given below of an example of the shielded connector of this type in which a spacer for detecting uninsertion of a terminal is mounted into the shield connector from the front side of the connector with reference to FIGS. 9 and 10. In particular, FIG. 9 is a longitudinal section view of a conventional shielded connector, while FIG. 10 is a front view of the conventional shielded connector.
In this conventional example, there is shown a connector of a double pole type wherein two cylindrical housings are arranged in parallel to each other.
That is, in this conventional shielded connector, a cylindrical outer housing 1 includes therein an inner housing 3 which is similarly formed in a cylindrical shape, and the outer housing 1 and inner housing 3 are connected to each other into a united body via connecting parts 5 which are respectively provided on the front right and left portions of the housings.
Between the outer housing 1 and inner housing 3, there is formed a gap 7 into which can be inserted a cylindrical metal shell 9 for covering the inner housing 3. The metal shell 9 can be mounted by securing a securing piece 9a thereof to a recessed portion 11 formed in the front and upper portion of the inner housing 3. Also, the rear portion of the metal shell 9 is exposed on the inner periphery of the outer housing 1 and is in contact with a contact member 17 attached by pressure to a shielded braid part 15 of a shielded wire 13.
Slightly upward of the central portion of the inner housing 3, there is formed a terminal storage chamber 19, while a male terminal 23 of the shielded wire 13 connected to a conductor of an insulated core wire 21 is mounted into the terminal storage chamber 19. An elastic securing piece 25, which is projected out toward the terminal storage chamber 19, is used to prevent the male terminal 23 from being removed from the terminal storage chamber 19. On the back surface side of the elastic securing piece 25, there is formed a spacer insertion space 27 which is opened in the front portion of the inner housing 3. If a spacer 29 is inserted into the spacer insertion space 27 from the front side of the connector, then the flexing of the elastic securing piece 25 can be regulated to thereby prevent the removal of the male terminal 23 more positively. Also, when the elastic securing piece 25 is in an incompletely secured state, then the elastic securing piece 25 is projected out into the spacer insertion space 27 to obstruct the insertion of the spacer 29, with the result that the uninsertion of the male terminal 23 can be detected.
As described above, due to provision of a terminal uninsertion detection mechanism, the terminal storage chamber 19 is situated upwardly of the central portion of the inner housing 3 and is thus shifted (offset) from the center axis of the shielded wire 13. In view of this, between the contact member 17 in contact with the metal shell 9 and the male terminal 23 stored in the terminal storage chamber 19, there is secured a given gap and the insulated core wire 21 interposed between them is bent to thereby absorb an amount of the above-mentioned shifting of the terminal storage chamber 19 with respect to the shielded wire 13.
However, in the above-mentioned conventional shielded connector, because the connecting parts 5 for connecting the outer housing 1 to the inner housing 3 are provided at the two right and left portions of the housings, especially as in electromobile specifications, in a shielded connector in which an electric wire has a large diameter, the rigidity thereof is increased and thus a repulsive force in the bent portion thereof is also increased. As a result of this, as shown in FIG. 11, there arises a problem that the rear portion of the metal shell 9 is raised up through the contact member 17. This upward displacement becomes large, especially in the male terminal 23 in which the distance between the terminal leading end thereof and the contact member 17 is long. If a male connector and a female connector are fitted with each other under such conditions, then, as shown in FIG. 12, the portion of the metal shell 9 on the male connector side thereof is inclined, to thereby greatly increase an insertion force between the male and female connectors.
In order to solve this problem, if the number of connecting parts 5 is increased, then it is necessary to increase the number of cut portions a (see FIG. 10) in the metal shell 9, which raises a new problem that the shielded area of the present connector by the metal shell 9 is decreased thereby lowering the shielding performance of the present connector. And, the increase in number of the connecting parts 5 also hinders attempts to reduce the size of the connector.